OAL is firearm and bullet specific, Not manual specific. Your handloads first must feed, fit and fire. Load the the OAL that best fits your bullet and firearm and forget what the manual says. After all, if your ammo does not fit and fire, there really is no need to be concerned about pressure.

You did not mention what SWC your are using, but I load my Lead 200gr SWC to 1.250. for all four of my 1911's.

Originally Posted By steve4102:
OAL is firearm and bullet specific, Not manual specific. Your handloads first must feed, fit and fire. Load the the OAL that best fits your bullet and firearm and forget what the manual says. After all, if your ammo does not fit and fire, there really is no need to be concerned about pressure.

You did not mention what SWC your are using, but I load my Lead 200gr SWC to 1.250. for all four of my 1911's.

OAL is specific to bullet first, firearm second. Bullet "shoulder", commonly referred to as ogive should never fall below case mouth. As a RULE bullets should be seated no less than 1/32nd of an inch distance from ogive to case mouth.

A picture of bullet would be helpful as seated in brass.

Another exception I'd like to point out. Picture of proper head space shows an ideal but not always true to go, no go gage spacing. Case head can fall below hood a little if chamber is reamed deep as many are.

Note this comment.
When set to an O.A.L. (overall length of the loaded cartridge) of 1.25 inches and a taper crimp at .469 (measured right at the case mouth) this will prove to be optimal in 99% of the .45s out there for reliable feeding.

Note this comment.
When set to an O.A.L. (overall length of the loaded cartridge) of 1.25 inches and a taper crimp at .469 (measured right at the case mouth) this will prove to be optimal in 99% of the .45s out there for reliable feeding.

They're at 1.250"-1.260" now.

I'm sure this batch is from before I started running my 45 loads them thru a Lee Factory Crimp Die
in station #4 on my Dillon 550-B.

I found these at the bottom of my "45 Stash" the other day, and started checking
to see whether they were "pre-FCD" or "post-FCD".

Reason I'm asking advice here is b/c of the wealth of knowledge that can be gleened
by the many handloaders that visit this site.

Cast bullets will change length from base to nose when using different alloys. For a swc bullet i set my COL using the shoulder of the bullet. This COL is very important when seating to just touch the lands. More Photos

OAL is specific to bullet first, firearm second. Bullet "shoulder", commonly referred to as ogive should never fall below case mouth. As a RULE bullets should be seated no less than 1/32nd of an inch distance from ogive to case mouth.

A picture of bullet would be helpful as seated in brass.

Another exception I'd like to point out. Picture of proper head space shows an ideal but not always true to go, no go gage spacing. Case head can fall below hood a little if chamber is reamed deep as many are.

Or

Short case length.

Whatever scenario, bullet ogive contacting rifling is a no go.

That really "spoke" to me about reloading, not just for this cartridge but for all of them. Every gun is different and as you change bullets you'll also see differences. Most of the time I've been really lucky with my reloads in .45 acp. First place I start is overall length (compared to factory hardball) and then insure they chamber in one of my 1911's. Only twice have I had issues. My series 70 refuses to reliably feed the 200 grain lead RNFP bullets (picked up from a guy who got out of cowboy action shooting) that all my other guns (series 80 Colt, SA 1911A1, PA P14 all feed just fine - yeah, I know feed not chamber issue but I found that if I load them a tad longer they feed fine in the Series 70. Those rounds still work fine in my Series 80. The 185 grain semiwadcutters seated "out" to feed in the Series 70 won't chamber in my Series 80 (both guns are Colts).

They are your reloads for you guns. Fiddle with them till they work in your guns. The beauty of reloading (one of them anyway) is that you can change things to make your guns do things they won't do with factory ammo. Your gun can be made more reliable with certain bullet types, you should be able to get better accuracy and you may be able to get more velocity.